Well, I'm encouraged to see the "teacher's pet" comment coming from someone at NI. I used FM7 to death. I like FM8, but I miss the operator copy-paste function a lot. This could be a truly brilliant synth. The modulation options are already outstanding. I just don't like to see NI ditching features we've come to rely on without explanation. I've tried almost every FM softsynth out there, and VOPM and FM7 are still my favorites. FM8 in high res mode does sound better for complex patches, so this feature is well appreciated. Please keep development going in a positive direction, and please bring back operator copy/paste. It makes more sense to me than the envelope linking feature, which still does not allow the copying of operators (say I set a complex ratio, and I want a quick copy that I can alter ever-so-slightly... can't do it anymore! Bring it back! Please?) Thanks for listening, NI, and PLEASE KEEP THIS UP, THIS ATTENTION IS VERY ENCOURAGING!
Well, it's a year and a half since the last post in this topic, and just over a year since the last update to FM8. Is FM8 really the "teacher's pet" at NI? Doesn't feel like it.........
I hope they aren't going to bury it in Komplete, FM8 is the only soft "synth" I still use regularly. I have others but FM8 is the only one that seems to have most options covered in the simplest package. I don't need Komplete, I need an instrument I know with the performance controls & sounds that I can set up quickly, that's why the Minimoog was such a success!
FM8 isn't going to evaporate anytime soon -- it has a solid following and is capable of fantastic sounds. Just yesterday I was showing it so someone who had never seen it, and they were blown away by its depth. Just drop some patches from the library into the morph quadrants and move the square around...wow. On that note, we don't feel the need to add any more functionality for the time being -- FM synthesis is a very deep topic, and just the task of learning FM can keep people busy for a while. Add to that all the things in FM8 that exceed the original DX spec: the analog filter and noise/saturation capabilities (Ops X & Z), advanced routing and envelopes, modulation matrix, diverse effects (the DX7 had none lol), full-featured arpeggiator, sound morphing, built-in categorical patch librarian...whew! Again guys, the perceived silence doesn't mean we hate FM8, there's just currently not a large enough list of potential features for a major update Personally, I still use it regularly in my tracks and that's not about to change. Best, Josh
Indeed, Josh, FM 8 does always surprise me with its depth, everytime I turn to it. (I should really use it more then I do actually). Also in my opinion there's no need for a major update, but a maintance update wouldn't hurt. (its been some time, isn't it ?) I haven't tracked any issues reported for a long time, but I'd be great, if there was a global MIDI configuration for example, so I could use my Korg Kaoss Pad with the xy field in plugin mode also, or the ability to change the order of effects via drag'n'drop, or a more comfortable way to save presets for the effects. Just some of those little things, which would improve this allready great synth. Cheers and thanks for listening.
As I said above, it's been over a year. There have been many feature requests that users would like to see: 1 - Operator copy/paste. See: http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7209 2 - Restricted characters eg *prevent import of many DX7 patches 3 - Being able to record arpeggiator output in DAW 4 - Bring back the randomize button from FM7 Bugs and problems have also been reported in these forums. One of them is: 1 - File menu still says "import from FM8" instead of from FM7. This is not too serious, but import is not always reliable. See: http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90958 There are plenty more - just look through these forums. No excuse for not providing at least a service update in over a year.
Export arpeggiator data as midi data. It would be nice to export the FM8 arpeggiator data for use in a sequencer, to have greater control and variety. Several softsynths allow one to simply drag and drop plugin sequence data onto the arrange window of the host app. (eg Stylus RMX) Amen to that